I decided to do something a little different tonight and score the fight like a boxing match by inning. In case you don’t know how that works, here is a decent explaination.

1st Inning: 10-8 Dodgers

Juan Pierre stole 2nd and scored on a bunt by Furcal. The problem I noticed was that Randy Wells has no slide step at all. He’s going to need to try to develop something or runners are going to steal all over the place on him. He was able to get out of the inning with just the one run allowed by pitching out of a 1st and 3rd jam with just one out.

Between the top and bottom of the inning, MLB Network ran two 2k9 commercials. The first had the game tonight played with the video game. Cubs win 3-2 thanks to a winning single by Milton Bradley. It’s a dumb concept in the sense that it shows nothing in terms of prediction accuracy, but it’s kind of fun to see Fontenot at SS, which is what happened in the commercial.

Leadoff single by Soriano is wasted thanks to a double play by Theriot with Milton striking out to end the inning.

2nd Inning: 10-10 Push

Randy Wolf had a terrible at bat trying to get a sacrifice down. He tried swinging for strike one and then missed the bunt on an outside pitch for strike two. He closed the at bad with a K on a fouled bunt attempt.

Matt Kemp gets a steal of 2B even with the pitchout in play. That shouldn’t be happening. It didn’t hurt us, but if you’re allowing guys to move around the bases for free, it’s going to bite you.

Another leadoff base runner, this time thanks to a nice at bat by Lee that resulted in a double to the opposite field, goes wasted as Reed Johnson can’t advance the runner and then both Geo and Fontenot go down swinging.

3rd Inning: 10-8 Dodgers

Bob Costas mentions that the Dodgers are doing things the right way tonight. With a bunch of singles, walks and steals, they’re doing the little things and have put a couple of runs on the board as a result. Heads up base running to take 2nd by Loney after his single.

Cubs down 1-2-3 and Randy Wolf is in the zone through the order the first time.

4th Inning: 10-10 Push

Wells gives up a leadoff single to Martin but makes a great pitch with an inside fastball to induce a 6-4-3 double play and inevitably, Costas brings up Tinker to Evers to Chance. You knew he was going to do it. It was just a matter of when.

Milton gets a walk, but we can’t do anything with it. Good at bat, despite the groundout by Theriot. He started off 0-2, but worked the count to 3-2 before hitting the ball 2nd.

5th Inning: 10-9 Dodgers

Great diving stab by Blanco to try to keep Pierre from an IF single, but JP is just too fast and beats the throw for a leadoff single.

With Pierre running on the play, Furcal lines to Reed Johnson and we get a non-traditional double play to push the Dodgers back after a good start to the inning. Running on the pitch, there really wasn’t anything JP could do on that play and the best move was to keep running and hope it drops.

Leadoff single goes to waste as Randy Wolf overpowers with three straight K’s to get out of the inning.

6th Inning: 10-9 Dodgers

Randy Wells has been pretty solid through six innings of work and really deserves some run support.

Another double play, this one off the bat of Milton Bradley and I’m getting frustrated. Thankfully I just saw the Tim Lincecum commercial where he’s mentoring his video game clone. That always amuses me, even the 9th time around this game.

7th Inning: 10-9 Cubs

Another quick inning for Wells and he’s probably done for the night. At this point, we’ve not won a single inning of this game. Just like in boxing, its time to go for the knockout late and try to pull this out.

Three Doors Down has a song that serves as the backdrop for the Geico caveman commercial. Is that a wise move? For me, that ruins a song for me because I think of the product when I hear it.

Another long drive to the opposite field for Lee turns into another long loud out. Another freaking double play ends the chance in the 7th.

Prior to the start of the inning, Hampton Inn had a commercial in which a patron of a hotel went to the front desk to voice his concern that there were no towels in the room. The guy at the desk stops him, reaches down and pulls up a violin and then asks the patron to continue, while he plays for him. It has to be one of the funnier commercials I’ve seen in awhile.

Good stab at 3B by Fontenot keeps Orlando Hudson off the base paths.

Great inning for Aaron Heilman has Sherm smiling with pride.

B-Skillz pinch hits and works back from a 0-2 count to hit a 3-2 pitch into the left centerfield bleachers. Welcome Back Bobby!!! That HR knocks Wolf out of the ballgame, thank God.

Jake Fox and Kosuke Fukudome both come in as pinch hitters (three in a row) and get on base to give Soriano a shot to drive home some runs. He blows his chance and Theriot grounds into yet another freaking double play

9th Inning: 10-9 Cubs

Jose Ascanio on to try to hold the Dodgers at bay and give the 3-4-5 part of our lineup a chance.

Ascanio gets pulled after 0.1 IP and leaves 2 men on for Angel Guzman who was great. Awesome job by Angel and props to Fox for making a nice snag at 3rd to get the force at 2nd.

Wow, what a bunt by Bradley to get on base to start the 9th. If he didn’t fool the Dodgers, he sure caught me by surprise.

Clutch single by Lee and the Cubs are in business. Now we just need to stay out of the double play.

Johnson gets the runners advanced with 1 out and I wonder aloud if it wouldn’t be a better move to pinch hit with Koyie Hill for Soto. Then again, it looks like they’re walking Soto, so that would have been a bad call. Had they not walked him, would it have been better to give Hill a shot, considering Fox would be able to fill in behind the plate on an emergency basis if needed? It’s probably not the best move, considering the bench is thin, but I can wonder.

B-Skillz and Jake Fox strike out with bases loaded and the Dodgers hold on. GRRRRRR

Joe Aiello is the founder of View From the Bleachers and one of the lead writers. Growing up in Chicago, he fondly remembers attending games in the bleachers before that was the popular thing to do. Currently Joe resides in North Carolina with his wife and three kids and helps people protect their assets as an independent insurance agent.
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Theriot killed us tonight with the double plays, neither of which was a great play or anything; both tailor-made DPs. It really bothers me that the real killer, which followed a hit by Fox and a walk to Fukudome but also followed a K by Soriano. Rather than work the count, rather than trying to force the issue by making the young pitcher come to him, Theriot jumps on the first pitch and hits right to the second baseman. Again, as a team, we have mostly terrible situational hitting.

Meantime, I think we need to know something about the Iowa lineup. I said weeks ago when Aramis was not on the DL but sitting for the groin strain that Fox should be playing 3B in case we need him. There is no one good at 3B in Iowa, Tennessee, or Daytona. Give Fox the innings, I wrote, and see if he can handle it. Now Fox finally comes up, pinch hits twice and goes out to 3B. He had played ONE GAME there in Iowa. I really think we need to know who screwed this up. If Bobby Dickerson can’t think this up on his own, why does he not get an email or a phone call from Chicago? I hope we see Jake at 3B in the next few days.

How in the world can a worthless ballplayer like Juan Pierre be batting over .400? We saw what he had in this one year in Wrigley Field and what he had was nothing. Joe Torre had his butt nailed to the bench until Manny went out and now the Dodgers are scoring more runs without him than the did with him. Pierre is doing it with mirrors and it cannot continue. Can it?

cap’n obvious

the thing that sticks with me…the 2B ump jacks the Cubs on the infuriating “neighborhood play” to end the 7th. Hudson was a full foot from the bag on the turn…2 outs with a runner on 2nd is a lot different from inning over.

Anyone catch the plate ump’s act from the Twins v. Red Sox game. The MLB and Umpire Union spin doctors will work overtime to make sure that the fallout from tht mess goes away by noon PST tomorrow. Its a shame…the guy missed 3-4 calls and then threw out 4 people for having the audacity to question it…

http://www.mindfulmission.com dave l

Theriot killed us tonight with the double plays

Theriot killed the team last year with double plays also. He actually had a higher DP% than Derrek Lee did last year.

How in the world can a worthless ballplayer like Juan Pierre be batting over .400?

Sample size.

MJ

ZING!

What happened in the Twins/Reds game? I was too busy playing Rock Band last night.

Seymour Butts

I saw the “highlights” in the Twins game. Rotten job by the HP Ump, and paper thin skin when called on it. I may harp on this, but the players union needs to take a stand on this abuse of power. I’d like to see a return to a generation ago where there was a little theater, and every body calmed down and went back to the field. ejections ,I think, were rare, but I’m sure Ed Hartig could tell us some numbers in his spare time. Or perhaps Dave (not calling you out, just asking).

I also saw the last inning of the Indians game K Wood had a 3 up, 3 down inning, though the last strike was very generous.

MJ

That’d actually be an interesting post. If there’s anyway to track it.

Umps have gotten as big of egos as the players nowadays. Whatever happened to being invisible?

Mastrick

Joe, some night when there’s a major prizefight on we have to score the match together. I like yer analysis! It was a fun twist to our normal repartee.